WOMEN’S BASKETBALL LOOKS TO STAY PERFECT
Idle for 20 days since knocking off Western Washington in the final round of the Disney Tip-Off Classic, Nov. 4, Coach Charity Elliott’s Women’s Basketball team returns to the court this weekend at the Grand Canyon Classic, in Phoenix, AZ...The Tritons (3-0), ranked 10th nationally, will test Western New Mexico on Friday and Fort Lewis (CO) Saturday.

Three games into the campaign, the Tritons’ top three scorers are seniors Meaghan Noud (13.3 ppg) and Alexis Gaskin (12.2 ppg) and junior Michelle Osier (9.7 ppg)...Osier has a best of 9.0 rebounds per contest and is tied with sophomore Erin Noonan for the assist lead with nine...Elliott signed a pair of freshmen recruits—5-8 point guard Chelsea Carlisle of Oaks Christian H.S. in Westlake Village & 6-1 forward Magdalena Usher out of Irvine’s University High School—to National Letters of Intent last week.

McGREGOR, DUNN CROSS COUNTRY ALL-AMERICANS; WOMEN TAKE 11TH
Appearing together at the NCAA Division II Championships for the first time since 2003, the Men’s & Women’s Cross Country teams both delivered top 20 performances in Joplin, MO last Saturday.

Led by reliable seniors Emily McGregor (31st/21:38.9), Diane Dunn (36th/21:47.3) and Amanda Burkhardt (85th/22:37.4), the Triton women grabbed 11th place in the team competition, up five spots from 2006...The top two collected All-American recognition... McGregor, trailing Dunn early, made a strong move in the second mile, while Dunn, after dropping back, made a charge in the final 200 m. to capture the final All-American position...Junior Ashleigh Montgomery (99th/22:57.6) and freshman Jessie Bodenhamer (104th/23:05.4) rounded out the scoring for UCSD...Freshman Briana Alban (144th) and sophomore Jordana Henderson (155th) also represented the Tritons in the 189-runner field.

Meanwhile, the Triton men were 20th...First-year Coach Nate Garcia’s top finisher was sophomore Jesse Morrill who capped a notable post-season with a 96th place finish, covering the 10K course in 32:52.7...In perhaps his best race of the year, Morrill went out hard early and backed it up late to lead the Tritons...Junior Greg Geldman, also closing out a solid final month with nice numbers, was 102nd in 32:58.5...UCSD’s other three scorers were juniors Jake LeVieux (113th/33:05.9), Kevin Klein (119th/33:17.4) and Gabe LaMothe (130th/33:43.3)...Sophomore Daniel Anderson, the Tritons’ top runner for much of the year, and 2006 CCAA Freshman of the Year Max Mullender were 153rd and 165th respectively.

WOMEN’S VOLLEYBALL STUNNED IN REGIONAL SEMI
What was very much a rollercoaster season for the Women’s Volleyball team ended with a heartbreaking loss to Western Washington in the semi-finals of the NCAA Division II Pacific Regional Friday night in San Bernardino...The 21st-ranked Tritons concluded their season 20-8.

The crazy results for Coach Tom Black’s club in last week’s two regional contests were symptomatic of its ’07 campaign...In Thursday afternoon’s first round, the third-seeded Tritons had to stave off elimination against an unexpectedly tenacious Northwest Nazarene, 3-2 (23-30, 30-25, 30-25, 26-30, 15-13)...With a 2-1 advantage and momentum on its side, UCSD was up, 17-15, in game four but the Crusaders scored three straight to grab the lead and UCSD was never able to get it back...The Tritons righted things in game five as two Casey Wilson kills gave them an early lead that they never relinquished...NNU was able to knot the score at 10, but junior Rebecca Bailey bombed three consecutive kills to put it out of reach...Bailey piled up a career high 30 kills in the match (.275) to go with an ace and eight digs...Sylvia Schmidt (20), Wilson (16) and Amber Ries (12) also reached double figures in the kill column while senior setter Kim Adams distributed a career best 76 assists...Five players, led by Wilson with 21, had 17 or more digs and Schmidt accounted for three of UCSD’s nine aces...The two teams hit an identical .245.

The semi-final looked like a walkover early as UCSD won games one and two in workmanlike fashion...In game three, the Tritons bounced back from a six-point deficit to trail by one at 20-19 but then the wheels started coming off...The Vikings accounted for 10 of the last 12 points, then went virtually wire-to-wire to win game four, 30-26...It looked like UCSD was going to be able to again summon some game five magic as Black’s spikers built leads of 5-2 and 11-8...This time, it was not to be, however, as Western roared back, scoring four of its last seven points on UCSD hitting errors...Bailey finished with 22 kills, Ries chipped in with 18 and Schmidt added 16 plus seven aces...Facchini had 26 digs leaving her school record career total at 1,628...WWU went on to defeat top-seeded host Cal State San Bernardino in the Regional final and advance to the NCAA Elite Eight.

Prior to the start of the Regional, Bailey and Schmidt were named All-CCAA first team...Seniors Facchini and Ries garnered second team honors...It marked the third consecutive year for Bailey on the all-conference squad and a second award for Facchini...Ries and Schmidt were first time selections.

FIFTH PLACE AT WWPA CHAMPIONSHIP FOR MEN’S POLO
A year that seemed to consistently show glimpses of promise only to come up just short on delivery ended on cue last weekend as the Men’s Water Polo team placed fifth at the Western Water Polo Assn. (WWPA) Championships in Colorado Springs...Coach Denny Harper’s club, ranked 14th going into the tournament, wound up 12-17 overall.

Harper’s squad, the defending champs but heavily laden with underclassmen, was seeded fourth going into the WWPA event...That made UCSD the unfortunate recipient of Air Force as a first round opponent Friday, in the Falcon’s home pool—6,035-ft. above sea level... Things got off to a rough start for the Tritons who trailed, 8-4, at halftime...But UCSD rallied in the second half and Steven Donohoe's six-on-five goal with 47 seconds remaining in regulation made it a 10-10 game...The fates were not with the Tritons on this afternoon though as Air Force returned the favor 25 seconds later to advance to the semi-finals...Junior Chance Vermilyea and sophomore Daniel Garcia scored three goals each and junor Jeff Hunt tallied twice in the losing cause.

Garcia rifled home four goals the next day as the Tritons routed UC Santa Cruz, 19-6, in consolation play...UCSD secured fifth place with a 14-8 pounding of No. 20 Redlands Sunday...Tied, 3-3, after one period, the Tritons exploded for five second quarter goals...Up, 8-4, at the break, the blue and gold pushed its lead to eight before cruising to the final buzzer...Garcia and Hunt were good for three goals apiece with Vermilyea and Donohoe notching two.

Thursday, Garcia was selected to the All-WWPA first team and fellow sophomore Donohoe was named to the second team...Goalie Mark Stemler earned All-Freshman recognition.